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#Edchatnz Blog Meme; aka a reflection on my time at the conference

1. How did you attend the #edchatnz conference (face 2 face, followed online or didn’t)?

I’m lucky enough to work at the amazing Hobsonville Point Secondary School, so I had the conference brought to me! I was there Face 2 Face on both days.

2. How many others attended from your school or organisation?

a large number, mostly by desire to attend and some by default!

3. How many #edchatnz challenges did you complete?

Maybe 2 or 3, mostly by accident. However I was privy to a large, large numbers of grelfies! But I did also get our students to create a Bean Bag fort in true #edchatnz style.

Bean Bag Fort Creation

4. Who are 3 people that you connected with and what did you learn from them?

Rachel Bolsatd (@shiftingthinking) – Rachel came and introduced herself to me on Friday! It was fantastic to hear from another edu person who was passionate about the role that gaming can have in education. I was really sad to have missed “The Game” session with her and Dan Millward as I was on the same slot. I look forward to reading the books she recommended to me!

Emma McNeish (@emmaotearoa) – I was so glad that I cam across Emma after Alyx’s (@chasingalyx) session on transparently teaching. She spoke honestly and openly about the challenges she was facing as a BT, and I felt privileged to be able to offer some advice to her. I wish I had been as open and transparent at that time.
Now to see that she has taken on the challenge of blogging, is AWESOME!!!!

Peggy Sheehy (@PeggySheehy) – this amazing woman from New York changed her flights to be with us at #Edchatnz! Peggy has set up and is running a K – 6 program in the states that teaches literacy through gaming. I have only really been toying around with the potential of gaming for education and experimenting but to hear from someone living the dream was awesome! I will now have to expand into WOW (World of Warcraft) and join Peggy’s Cognitive Dissonance Guild.

5. What session are you gutted that you missed?

– I’m gutted that I missed out on the #kidsedchatnz presentation, it missed my stream of consciousness despite being a techno support for it and later connecting with @ReidhS1

6. Who is one person that you would like to have taken to Edchatnz and what thing would they have learnt?

– I would’ve loved to take all my teacher friends from Uni that I caught up with on the Friday night. I think they would’ve got some good exposure to MLEs, learning commons and the way that they are functioning effectively.

7. Is there a person you didn’t get to meet/chat with (F2F/online) that you wished you had? Why?

– Hmmmmm, excellent question. There were so many people at the conference to meet, and tweet with that I really can’t choose. I’m looking forward to connecting with more Tweeps online and then at the next Edchatnz conference (dare I suggest it?!) I would love to connect with more peeps!

8. What’s the next book you are going to read and why?

Well, as I am on a a bit of a roll with Gaming for Education, I would like to read a book called What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy by Dr James Paul Gee. After also speaking to Peggy Sheehy, I think it would be well and truly worth getting some hard evidence behind my assumptions about the greatness of games!

9. What is one thing you plan to do to continue the Education Revolution you learnt about at #EdchatNZ?

I plan to take the time and make the effort to read more (I can hear my husband sighing already!) and start to build my repertoire of books that I can use to support my ideas about gaming in education. Oh and participate more frequently in #edchatnz.

10. Will you take a risk and hand your students a blank canvas?

Heck take the whole paint set, all the paint brushes and as many blank canvases as you like! Every learner (teachers included) can take up a new blank canvas at any moment, what you paint on it is your choice!